An outside shot at the eighth seed? No, no. no. The Rockets have a great shot at the sixth seed, and an outside shot at the fifth seed. All they have to do is put a little more effort into team defense, and they will be able to outrun most of their competition. They could still be like the Sixers. Based around guards, but a winning team because of grit, hustle, and defensive effort. Last year the Rockets had an outside shot at the 8th seed, and missed it by two games. They lost 9 games to sub-500 teams. If they can win the games they should win this year, then they will make it. They just have to bring it EVERY SINGLE GAME! Anyway, let's do a talent comparison between the Rockets and Suns, and the Wolves. Francis-Brandon Edge Francis Mobley-Peeler Edge Mobley Griffin-Scuzzbag Scuzzy is just a shooter, edge Griffin Taylor-Garnett Edge Garnett of course, but Taylor aint bad. Cato-Woods/Nestorvich Wash Bench- Moochie, Shandon, Walt, Kenny, Bullard, Langhi and Morris provide the Rockets with a deep bench. The Wolves feature the same scrubs as last year except for Ellis. Joe Smith will be Joe Smith- nothing special. Edge Rockets Coach- Rudy versus Saunders- I'm going to have to side with Rudy here. Francis-Marbury Wash Mobley-Hardaway Edge Mobley Not the Penny of old. Griffin-Marion Edge Marion- for now Taylor-Rogers Rogers is just a 3pt shooter. Taylor should be better. Cato-Tsisddakeidleds At least Cato gets a few oops. Bench Moochie, Shandon, Walt, Kenny, Bullard, Langhi, and Morris should be better than Ellie, Delk, Santiago, Wallace, and whoever else is on that almost non-existant bench. Edge Rockets Coach- Rudy versus Skiles- Skiles has done nothing. Edge Rudy. Anyway, put all this aside, and you still have the new rules to help the Rockets swarm those big men that always hurt them, and they have the shooters to survive the zone. The Rockets have to make the playoffs. Aside from injuries, there are no excuses.
We are not a lottery team for the following reasons : 1) Our backcourt poses MAJOR match-up problems for even the best of teams. No team in the league has a backcourt that can adequately guard ours, and with added experience and more experience, I think they will be much better than last year. 2) Maurice Taylor will improve. His jumper is practically automatic from 20-ft on in, and if he addresses his deficiencies(playing defense with his hands and not his feet, better positioning on rebounds) then he will be a valuable player in our frontcourt. 3) Eddie Griffin will have an impact. I know many of you think he won't, but I believe he will have an immediate impact with his shot-blocking and rebounding. 4) The Suns are much, much worse than last year. Marbury is a good player, but precisely the wrong point for the Suns, plus they traded away their best scorer for chicken feed.
I love how optimistic some people are. I wish I could be, but without some help at the 5, we are in deep s..t. Cato will prob. start at the 5 and will be burned out before the all-star break leaving us with Jason(watch out with my knee) Collier. How sad is that? So many posters said that we'd have 7-10 mill to pursue FA after we sign our own, .... shows what they know. If we could barely see the light last year, then we'll be completely in the dark this year. I think we'll be packing up some more 1st round picks next year for Chris Marcus.
I don't see us going very far with a player who should be a college sophomore as our best rebounder. We need a solid rebounder in the game at all times which basically means a backup center to Cato who can grab boards, at least 8 or 9 consistently. I'm saying this considering that Griffin will hopefully start at SF. A strarting frontcourt of Cato MoT and Griffin is preety damn good, especially if we can back it up with say Jahidi White, Kenny Thoman or Terrence Morris and Langhi or Walt. Secondly, we should be less inclined to trade Walt since he's one of our few guys that can hit a three, and his contract's off the books next year. Langhi + change for Jahidi White!
Bingo, You want to keep Walt for 3s but trade Langhi? I would be surprised if Langhi goes anywhere. To other teams he is unproven but Rockets staff and RT seem excited about the guy. I think they believe that he will be an impact player.
Walt is more of an established shooter than Langhi. Dan hasn't done anything in games to show that he is a future impact player.
All I'm saying is we should keep Walt and get cap space next year. No use in trading him now, unless it's a deal that's too good to be true. So anything less than Walt and scrubs for LaFrentz, we would be doing the other team a favor by sending a serviceable, veteran shooter that will clear them a nice chunk of cap space. No one has responded to my Jahidi White post so I don't know if this is a feasible trade, although the RealGm simulator accepts it as a valid trade. Langhi straight up for Jahidi White. I'm no cap expert andcould very well be mistaken.
Also, Walt is supposedly tight with our boys, Steve,Cat etc.. Langhi is tight with our other white boys Collier and Bull. I'd rather mess up that chemistry than the Steve club.
